Soundbite.Studio: Sea Fox, Green Spaces, & the "Ballad of Massa".
Breaking my promise to keep my real work and online work separated.
I debated about sharing what I’m about to share with y’all because it involves an important part of my actual, non-internet-based life: my work as a community organizer. I’m not emotionally attached to any of Reels I post (or repost) on Black Food Fridays. I am, however, very sensitive to how my work as a community organizer is received. That is to say, while I don’t actually care about what you think of some barbecue video I shared, my feelings can be hurt around comments made in relation to my work as an organizer.
Why? Because as a community organizer, I get paid to question everything. Especially things that seem self-explanatory. So when I post things things that are decidedly more community focused—I’m not doing so on a whim. And when those posts are not received well, it really has an affect on me.
Sometimes, Facts Don’t Matter.
Y’all might not remember but a while back I posted a video of a Black owned laundromat that had a speakeasy in the back. I absolutely loved the concept because it was unique and served a very specific population of people who aren’t normally considered. If you look at the chart above, courtesy of the Energy Information Administration (yes, that’s a real governmental agency), only 72% of homes that earn between $15,000 and $29,999 per year have a clothes washer in their home. While only 65% of homes within that same income range have a clothes dryer. The laundromat in question was based in New York City, a place notoriously known for apartments not having in-home washer and dryer units. There are a host of reasons, including old ass infrastructure, that made NOT having a washer and dryer in the home a normal thing in NYC. You can read about why by clicking this link.
In addition to the factual need for washer and dryers in that community, it’s also true that many Black and Brown communities are starved for “third spaces”, places outside of the home or place of employment where residents can build community. Combining the two seemed like such a beautiful idea in my mind.
But a larger-than-expected group of commenters did NOT feel the same way. They made it known that, in their opinion, there were more important things that communities like those needed—grocery stores and health clinics, for example—and that another way to drink liquor ain’t one of them. Once people started arguing, my reasons for posting in the first place (a great example community-led, asset based development), fell by the wayside. That sucked because I really thought y’all would see it the way I did.
Most recently, when I raised questions about Keith Lee’s food review process—a process in which he recently said he will be fixing—I was hit with such a strong backlash I started questioning myself, re-reading what I posted 50 different times over the next few days. What could I have possibly have said about Keith that would have my own followers calling me a hater or inferring that I was JEALOUS of him?
After those experiences, I vowed to keep my community organizer opinions separate from whatever I post on Black Food Fridays (for the most part 🫣). I can’t lie, it hurt to realize that most of my followers are just as bad at having nuanced conversations in the comment section as anyone else. But after I got out my feelings, I decided to hold myself accountable rather than blame my followers. I don’t know if that was the right thing to do but it’s how I decided to handle that. It was either let it go or start looking up IP Addresses and pop-up on those who levied unnecessarily spicy comments towards me. The latter seemed like a great idea in the moment but I moisturize my skin with coconut oil. I can’t be going to jail over some butter soft, “they made fun of me on the internet” shit like that. I wouldn’t last a week.
Put Me In Coach!
And if all went according to plan, I would have happily kept my “real life” and my social media persona separate. But then, a man named Omar came for my neck while I was a guest at the Florence Wine & Food Festival. A friend sent me a screen shot of a Facebook Live video where he said I was working for “Massa”. Attached to the photo was one question: “Boi what you done now? lol”
I know of this gentleman but I don’t think I’ve ever held a conversation with him, especially as it relates to who I work for. More importantly, I was thinking: “Massa? That’s the best you can do?” I laughed. LOUDLY. And to no one in particular. I was just confused as to why someone could come out their mouth and say that I work for a proverbial enslaver because my actual boss is whole Black woman.
And my full-time job? It’s to organize with Black people who live in historically Black neighborhoods.
Oh and my side gig? To promote Black people, from all over the world and in all our many forms, in the food space.
So not only was this man factually incorrect, he had the pleasure of doing so while wearing the branded merchandise of a RICH WHITE MAN’S BOAT MANUFACTURING COMPANY. A company that all of the neighborhoods I work with are standing in opposition against in a zoning battle for the ages.
That led me to rethink my position on creating this divide between who I am off-line and online. Simply put, I can’t do that. Black Food Fridays is rooted in community; it’s built upon a foundation of organizing on behalf of my people. There is no online version of me, there’s just me. The Laundromat Speakeasy and Keith Lee situations had me shook for a minute but, on the bright side, they made me realize this truth to be self-evident: social media ain’t the place to hold these discussions. But my newsletter? Well, it was made for moments like this. Hence why I have made the decision to (literally) speak on this stuff.
WHO’S WORKING FOR MASSA AGAIN?
This Feels Like A Sitcom.
I mentioned earlier that I laughed when I saw the screenshot but I didn’t say why. In a phrase: Ella Baker.
Without going into a long dissertation, Ella Baker is the Michael Jordan of community organizing—in my opinion. Responsible for the explosion of growth the NAACP experienced in the 1940s, she was hand-picked by Martin Luther King Jr. to help expand the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Oh, and did I mention that she was partly responsible for the creation of the legendary Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)? In short, she was a bad ass. A bad ass who warned against the intoxicating desire to create and elevate a singular strong, leader for any group of people.
“There is also the danger in our culture that because a person is called upon to give public statements and is acclaimed by the establishment, such a person gets to the point of believing that he is the movement.”
— Ella Baker
I 100% agree with the late Ms. Baker: strong communities don’t require one or two strong leaders. So the fact that anyone would think that attacking me was a sound strategy shows that they actually don’t know me and, to be honest, it’s kind of hilarious!
I don’t organize from a “I need to be in charge of everything” perspective. I’ve told many people that my job is to do whatever my neighborhood leaders tell me they want to do. If they were on board with the City of North Charleston rezoning the old Baker Hospital site to allow this company to manufacture boats, I’d be on the front lines helping make that a reality. But as it stands, they ain’t with that so “we” ain’t with that. In fact, here’s a link to a petition that explains the situation from the eyes of the community (created by someone FROM the community).
“HOW IS HE NOT LAUGHING AT HIMSELF?”
What’s Next?
By the time you’ve read this, the public safety meeting where this zoning issue is to be resolved would have already happened. But until this is actually resolved, over the next few weeks—or however long it takes for this to play out—I will share some audio clips concerning my real-time (well, real at the time) views on this entire situation.
In the next Soundbite.Studio (SEA FOX EDITION) I’ll give you a primer to this entire situation, play my public comments from the public safety meeting, and bring you the voices of a few of the community members who are against the continued industrialization of District 10. Until then, I’ll leave you with a clip I recorded just a few days ago. In it, yes, you’ll hear some frustration in my voice but you’ll also hear what I plan on doing about it.
WHY YOU ALWAYS LYIN’?
👋🏾 See you next week!
Love, KJ.
The people who get it, get it. The people who don't, won't. They're not disagreeing in good faith, they're there to be contrary, to incite, or be disruptive. Because massa? Really? Be for real Omar.